For five years the Mid-American Conference and its athletes have had a bit of a problem with following the rules.
While the MAC is still striving to become a national presence on the athletic fields in the way the Big Ten or any other BCS conference is, it has done a fairly good job of keeping pace with the big guns in national scandals.
Ball State leads the pack with the book scandal and a whole slew of player suspensions and dismissals and NCAA rule violations (Hello Ronny Thompson).
But the other MAC schools have also had their fair share of violations and player suspensions and dismissals. This is all without mentioning the Toledo point-shaving case.
Well, there's a new issue for a MAC school that is getting some national publicity.
The star player for the Buffalo men's basketball team, Andy Robinson, received a three-game suspension for the upcoming season for a message he posted on his Facebook wall.
According to a story from The Buffalo News, his message read: "I am paying anybody who have read the book 'there are no children here' by Alex Kotlowitz $30-40 which in some classes you have to read at UB (even more money if you have to read the book a little more!!) to write a 3-4 page paper, on a couple questions which was assigned."
The first question that came to my mind when I read about this is how low are Buffalo's academic requirements that someone who is obviously not smarter than a fifth grader got in. The second question was how could he get only a three-game suspension.
This is a serious infraction. He is not only trying to cheat and get someone else to do his homework, a trend that many people believe to be abundant among college athletes, but he is doing it out in the open on Facebook.
Robinson was named to the All-MAC Honorable Mention team last season when he averaged 13.1 points for the Bulls, yet he isn't smart enough to not cheat - or at least cheat in a way so he won't get caught. That doesn't make Buffalo or the MAC look good in multiple ways.
It's time players, and people in general, learn that Facebook isn't a safe place to post stuff for which you could get in trouble. I have seen a picture of a 20-year-old Ball State athlete with a beer in her hand while in the hotel for a road game. It was taken down two days later before I had saved it, but it is clear some college athletes still need to wake up.
They are getting a free education because they play the sport they love very well. They deserve to get the free education but there should be little to no patience for the athletes who show no respect for how lucky they are.
The MAC needs to get its act together and take a stronger hand to the players that are making headlines for the wrong reasons. The slaps on the wrist aren't working and a three-game suspension for offering money for a good paper likely won't be teaching Mr. Robinson any lessons either.
Write to Levin at ltblack@bsu.edu
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